DeepCwind Consortium

WASHINGTON – Underscoring the Obama Administration’s all-of-the-above strategy to develop more secure, domestic energy sources and strengthen American competitiveness in the global market, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced seven offshore wind awards for projects in Maine, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Texas and Virginia. As part of the Energy Department’s broader efforts to launch an offshore wind industry in the United States, these engineering, design and deployment projects will support innovative offshore installations in state and federal waters for commercial operation by 2017.

ORONO, Maine — The man at the helm of Maine’s push to put 170 floating wind turbines in the Gulf of Maine by 2030 likens that effort to NASA’s space program.

Using that analogy, the wind turbine standing behind the University of Maine’s Offshore Wind Laboratory at the Advanced Structures and Composites Center’s could be compared to Explorer I, the first U.S. satellite launched into space.

The University of Maine's (UMaine) Advanced Structures and Composites Center, NRG Systems Inc., AWS Truepower LLC, UMaine's Physical Oceanography Group and Leosphere SAS have established a research and development partnership to gather deepwater hub-height wind measurements in the Gulf of Maine.